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Simone Maya welcome to my podcast uh thanks for having well thanks can we cut this no no this is it this is it we're
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on we're live um this is um Simone my four times cman do multisport world champion uh you've done God's Own events
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you've raced all around the world you're an absolute you're you're you're bossing
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it you're a Savage and you're you're 43 years old and this is part of what I
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find exciting about your story it's like um you just seem to keep getting better
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with age yeah if you look at the piece of paper yeah K looks like that where do you think where do you think you are if
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it's like a mountain peak where do you think you are are you on the way up to
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the Apex are you at the Apex or are you on the downward slide now I think I'm
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maybe maybe just before the the apic I still I I think I that's how I feel I I
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try and scrape the last little piece of things to the top of the summit like the
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Everest you know there's this there's not much left but I feel like um I can
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hover out a little bit more and then I think I'm happy yeah yeah this is what I
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love love about this um this sport that you're in this endurance sport it sort
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of um you know favors persistence and patience and and time you know um so you do sort of get to middle age before you
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sort of reach your Peak which is really exciting it's cool yeah I don't know if I I feel like
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oh imagine if I would have done all things 10 years earlier where I could have been now I feel like oh I'm such a not
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old but if you look at the number I'm I'm 43 years young I say but it's quite
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well it is a bit old but it's also I guess I don't know it feels a bit oldd
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but I feel like the 40 is maybe the young the new 30 now that's what they saying I'm I'm 50 now so I'm I'm like 50
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is the new 40 whatever age you are you wind it back 10 years don't you um but
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the the the um the Intriguing thing about you and I thought you'd be an amazing podcast guest is um if we use
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like the The Mountaintop analogy again um so your highs in life have been just crazy high uh and your lows have your
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rock bottoms have have been just so so low as well it's like a life of extremities and it's amazing so to to to
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see where you are now from where you've come from it's a remarkable story and
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it's fantastic and it's wonderful to have you here today oh thank you so you
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you moved to New Zealand to wer in your 20s mid 20s 27 I was just turned 27 and you couldn't speak English pretty much
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yeah yeah I would come with a few words and I remember people ask me how you doing you know as I they walk past you
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and I say hi hello greet them and they're like how are you doing and I start talking to them and they just walk
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past me and I was like you just ask me how I'm doing you want to hear actually
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you know what I'm doing so that was one thing I would go um to the to the check
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out and the again how I'm doing and I tell them how old I am oh I'm 27 how you
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doing you know like totally misunderstood what they asking me to do yeah they must be like the most you know
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when when you're a kid it's easy to learn learn new things and pick things
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up just easily and it doesn't feel like learning but when you're an adult like
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in you're you're 27 years old um I can't imagine it's easy going to a new country
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and learning a brand new language it's got to be [ __ ] difficult yeah it was
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I guess it was my my my initiative thought or why I came over here was I was 26 and I hit the I hit a point where
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I'm like oh I'm so sick of this not speaking a second language if that makes
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sense I had English at school like from year I don't know one two three four
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fifth fifth class you have your you have English for the entire life you till you
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finished school and I just struggled so much at school and I guess maybe because
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we brought up with only one language at home we never went on a holiday where you would speak a second language so I
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guess no one felt the need to you know and even at school I it was was my major Focus I was more the the sporty Arty
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girl and I guess also with my grandma I probably had severe highly dyslexia because I still strug struggle
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with the grammar or reading or putting it all into the right how do you say language and grammar um anyway and then
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by just traveling with your mates to you know when you get older in your teenager
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life and you go to Italy or wherever Spain and they're all chatting away and
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I'm the only one that just sits there and kind of feels dumb and like I don't
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know you know you feel a bit kind of not useless but embarrassed but it was like
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that's where I realized oh my God I should have done what the teacher told me you need to go home and do when you
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learn your vocabul and what did I do I mean I did my homeworks but I probably went home did my homeworks and then I
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was out and about just training and you know enjoying sports that was my purpose
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Al so you legit only spoke German no other languages you most people you I don't know I'm probably gen generalizing
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here but most people I've met in Europe seem to speak like one core language
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then like a you know bits and pieces of other languages whereas here in New Zealand everyone speaks English and
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that's for the most part it yeah you might get some people that know like a little bit of maldi or maybe a little
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bit of French from school but most people only have one language here you were the same yeah yeah pretty much yeah
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um and in in German it's actually composer you have to learn English but I I just really struggled I just didn't
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yeah and then anyway then I got 26 um and I said right that's it I'm going to
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do it myself I'm going to jump into the deep and I don't want any friends and
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family I broke up with my boyfriend at the time I like I'm going to go by myself I like oh we can have distant
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thing like no I don't want a distant thing I just have to do this and I don't
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know because I didn't want someone being back in Germany waiting for me you know
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a year or even six months it's such a long time 100% we going to grow in different directions I don't want any
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attachment and I don't don't want him to be attached if someone pops around you
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know what I mean so anyway so I literally I picked up everything I also had this feeling inside that I just need
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to leave and I probably had another purpose which we might hatch on lat yeah we we'll we'll get back to that I
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thought thought we'll focus on the um just your outstanding athletic achievements here in New Zealand because
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you're got one to say I won the adventur race World Championships last year with um Team AA
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we listen we can we can get into all that but I think we need to like break it down so that people have got an
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understanding of what these what these events are and what they entail there's
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there's a lot to it but the um the bottom line is you're you're a Savage a
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Savage right you're you're an absolute Beast like a weapon out there hey like
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what you've done is just Unthinkable really oh I guess it keeps me occupied so first of all before we get
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into notice you're wearing a radex um T-shirt I'm um I'm a radex um fan as as
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well they've been sponsoring this podcast uh for the best part of a year now um how did that Association come
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about R audio my I'm proudly sponsored by rics too which is great that came about I guess I was racing in China with
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my teamate Sam Clark at the time in 2018 I think and he was sponsored by rics and
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he bring bring he brought all the meals over for the team and it was incredible because usually ch is always I mean I
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love China but the food you just have to be a bit more careful and yeah so anyway
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we had these redic meals and it was just mind-blowing how we didn't get sick
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which is a a major bonus not to get sick and have no sick teammates we also while
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we are racing because they're quite extreme situations like it's a stage
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race where you go for four five days sometimes you sleep in between but you know the nutrition is a key element of
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recovery as you probably know as a runner you know know and your overall well-being and what we all found that we
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recovered much better and we also didn't come back with such a graving you know
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usually you feel like you've been sort the mental but it just balanced us really well you know if that makes sense
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yeah yeah oh I by the way thank you for bringing up that I'm a runner it's worth
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it's worth pointing out the longest I've done is like a 50k run I'm generally
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marathons but um one thing which um I found particularly amazing with radex is um yeah there's a book I've been reading
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Navy book called Extreme ownership and it's about just owning absolutely every
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possible scenario and taking it on yourself and where that fits into radex with me is um for example recently I
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went to Sydney for the the marathon in September and when you're staying in a
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hotel you don't know what you're going to you don't know if you're going to
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have access to a toaster or a microwave for your porridge or whatever so if I take the radex breakfast with me um I
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know that as long as there's a tap with running water I'm going to be to fuel
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myself um in a way that my body's become accustomed to for the event h me um not
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leaving anything to chance and it's just so convenient and so bloody good it is
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it is basically exactly the same when we go to China you just never know in especially or even with the water you
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don't even know what water you're going to get so but if you get a bottled water
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and you put it in the um Jack to boil it then you pretty safe and that's even I
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roll it with this still like last night on my way up to Christ Church I I had two reic meals I just made them on the
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side of the road because I was starving I was running L it's like I just don't
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have time and I it's just good because I know what I get it's pretty good
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nutrition takes all the boxes it's really healthy there's no additives no
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fillings no sugar like no crap in it it's really good ingredients like anyway
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sorry I don't want to run on it but they oh no no it's it's it's really good it's
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like I I tell people about that they're like you're sponsored but it's like no
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even if I wasn't sponsored I'd still be talking about this [ __ ] um like you rip
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the bag open and it turns into a bowl even if you don't have a spoon you can
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yes if there's enough water in there you can drink it and what I guess like the
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most it it it it's it makes um it adds up my values what I stand for and what I
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believe in like I feel like there's a good match like we have a similar probably the same vision and you know
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like the whole overall picture like we want to be healthy we want to eat healthy we want to look after our well
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building and we want to make it affordable so these meals they are actually affordable so much rather than
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I don't want to break about McDonald but you know like you going to Super Mark um
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it's well invested yeah so anyway it's for everybody not just athletes that's
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what I want to say oh no no no it's it's great and yeah have you had a lot to do
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with the team like the team they are incredible and when you when you meet the team and you get on the same page as
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them and you see what their goals and objectives are it's like yeah this is a
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this is a brand I can get behind oh yeah they're just always Forward Thinking or
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evolving and that's I guess reflects me as well I want to evolve I want to learn
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I want to grow I want to do the best I can how can we make this happen you know I don't want to be just stuck oh okay we
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I've done this now and no there's so much more and I guess you see that with
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the packaging now you know it's less waste they make it more recycl recyclable and probably in the near
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future it will be compost I don't know but you know and I like that too like we
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need to look at our plan uh out our planet and you know the future compostible packaging it's like you're
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coming with a 5 plan for the company they are pretty amazing yeah they are they are okay so let's talk
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about your athletic achievements first of all what what is um what's the god
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Zone event is that the one that Richie mord does oh my God yeah so yeah Richie Mard Gods I raised with Richie MCO in 20
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I think 21 he kicked his ass no he was in he was my teamate oh he's in your team he was in my team and we came
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second with Richie second of all right so what is what has God say because I'm
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guessing there's a lot of people watching this or listening to the second yes sorry so I guess there's a bit of
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different definition or different difference between adventure racing and multisport I guess what they have in
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common they're all in nature outdoors in the mountains you know yeah but an adventure race is basically uh a race
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where you go from A to B or A to Z and you've get a given a map with control
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points and you have a navigator and you go all day all night and no one tells you what to do you know well you got
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given the the lengths like you have like a 200k cycle length or even 122k run/ hike and kayaking so it's all in nature
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and you have all sorts of elements with upselling climbing so you kind of have to be sort of an all round allrounder
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sort of but you don't have to how do you say like you definitely need a navigator
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because you have to navigate and it's really old school there's no GPS there's
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no technical um devices allowed and with your team of four so it's always a team
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of four and the rules is usually three guys and a girl and you I guess try and be the make
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your way as quick as possible from a to the Finish Line collecting these controls and yeah yeah that's amazing
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you don't really sleep much so it's probably um like I can understand not
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understand but I I feel a bit like must be like when you have a baby you know the first few weeks or months or years
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they talk about sleep deoration the M um probably similar to that yeah the only difference is your Gods on you play
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don't end it with crack nipples maybe so so so teams are four so so what were I'm guessing you pack different
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teammates for their strengths or whatever yes so like what did Richie bring to the team well Richie it was
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actually originally it was Richie's team and that kind of got Stripped Away week
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by week someone got injured someone couldn't and then we had that period with lockdown so the last one couldn't
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get out from Oakland because they shut Oakland down and um so it was him he was the last one standing and even his
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Navigator got Stripped Away but he's actually really good n Navigator himself
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and I guess his key element is I don't know much about rugby but what I've
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experienced with him he's actually a great team player and a really good leader as such like um quite fascinating
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like it's just yeah I mean you've had you've had a ringside seat I guess to um
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yeah Richie mccor and his leadership post rugby but um and it's his leadership is something that most of us
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you know very few new zealanders would have to experience during his 148 tests but what do you mean can you think of
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any examples is he just good at keeping cool under prer or oh he's very cool and he
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would never give up no many how many stumbles I did say I think I did say to him once he was he's quite clumsy I
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would Express him as like or he keeps falling over in in the woods and I was like you just got rakby with TRS you
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just bump into those trees to knock something over I don't know if you found
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it funny at the time but I had to laugh how could you not how could you not and you know he had some good words of
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wisdom which I can't recall it right now but while we were walking and we were
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walking a lot for a long time um we had some deep meaningful conversations and that was just fascinating so he because
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I had no idea about him I know he was a rugby Legion you know and even when you go shopping with him there were people
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coming and hey Richie and wanted an autograph and blah blah and I was like man we under time pressure you know get
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out of here but anyway he is quite kind and he takes the time and you know um but I had
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no idea till I saw with my own eyes what an impact I guess he has on the people and how well respected he is and you
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know what I mean like yeah um so yeah it was an honor to to to race with him yeah
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I thought at some point we might kill him but oh God would be a disaster so in these so in these godzone events so you
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you you're allowed to sleep if you want but if you sleep obviously you're not
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making any sort of movement so we as a team do you decide to have a 15 minute nap 20 minute nap or yeah there are
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times um we had sometimes they have um compulsory dark zones like you can't go
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on the Wild River so you have to stay there for the whole night you know and that's a good thing to know that you
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know you've got a good quality sleep you got eight hours of resting so sometimes
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you have to push for two days to get there but then you have eight hours of sleep sometimes that not that doesn't
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happen and you have to structure with your team when you're going to sleep most teams they probably don't have any
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sleep the first 24 hours because you so awake and you know you just want to go yeah you are wired um but also it comes
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down to the guy that is in charge of the N or ideally want to have two people on
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the N so they can share the load and it this A B it is a bit based on how they feel if they feel like they need to
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sleep then you know you need to listen to them because they are your main components like if they get tired and
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make you know when you're more tired you're more so I guess it's easier to
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make nness mistakes so yeah or get clumsier if you're yeah yeah no he was pretty
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good and even if it would fall over like we had one scenario he climbed over the
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fence he got caught and he was falling down on the other side on these funny cut tree stamps and I was like oh my God
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we might have to stitch him up but he just got up dusted off the dirt and had a deep breath and marched on I was like
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man CU when he was playing rugby and it's one of the most successful all black rugby careers ever like 148 test
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at every single postmatch conference he had blood everywhere like he's used to
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being cut he's fine I know I just had no idea you know I just God I couldn't even
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punch someone probably he like ah that hurts you know like I don't like pain is
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such anymore more that makes sense are you sure you're in the right spot then it seems like a very painful
00:18:03
SP endurance pain I guess it's different than you know and Co Coast to Coast I suppose is
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the thing that you've really sort of like pushed through and made a name for
00:18:11
yourself here in New Zealand was that fair to say over recent years so you you won Coast to Coast correct me if I'm
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wrong um but you won coast to coast in 19 uh 2019 yeah 2021 mhm 2022 2023 and you're training for the 24
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event and you're the you're the first woman to do a three p three three wins
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in a row I'm not sure I should actually I should know I've got the trophy at
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home looking at every day um no I think there has been another woman they have done three oh maybe not three in a row
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that's a good point I have to I will do some homework but I know there is Kathy
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Lynn she won it five times so if you if you win in touchwood and 2024 that that's five times as well yes w
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that's a big goal that's a lot of pressure on yourself yeah it's good though keeps me
00:19:05
going yeah I know sometimes it's maybe a bit too much but it's like yeah and then
00:19:09
people like oh you need to do six hour like no no no it's enough and and um yes so you won
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in uh 2019 2021 20 yeah what happened in 2020 that was a dnf did not finish yeah
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what happened I I got hypothermia I had too many swims in the boat I was pedling
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and I decided that I'm not it's not safe enough for me to carry on because I
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would probably become a hazard or you know um a danger zone for other competitors and I think it's not fair
00:19:39
enough they trained all year for this event for me to potentially ruin I was hypothermic before way back in Germany
00:19:46
in my early 20s and I thought I I don't want to go there anymore like I was probably I could have probably maybe
00:19:52
carried on but I was like what's the point like you know I'm it's not safe
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you know and there's too it's not life threat it's not lifethreatening I'm not
00:20:01
dying here it's of course it's a race but at the end it's just a race it's not
00:20:05
the end of the world yeah but that must have been it must have been heartbreaking for you though like oh it
00:20:08
was it was a oh it was a bit of sweet moment it's probably not the worst moment but one of these worst moments
00:20:15
you don't wish on anyone and I guess everyone that had to pull out of a race
00:20:19
for whatever reason or had to give up you know whatever they trained again for their six months leading into it it's
00:20:27
it's definitely not an easy pill to swallow but I feel like with all I wouldn't call them failures but with all
00:20:33
the things that didn't plan out or didn't go my way I wanted I I feel like
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I come out on the I I learn so much more than when things oh keep going the right
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way if that makes sense 100 100% you learn so much more from your um your failures or your disappointments that
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yeah you learned nothing from winning yeah it's nice it's sweet but then it
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doesn't last long but when you feel like you you really earned it you know everything came together you worked on
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this for so long you overcome a certain fear whatever and you nailed it like last year for an example or 200 what's
00:21:04
23 that was one of these moments where I'm like I I feel like I I've succeeded
00:21:09
now not in everything but you know like I I can ride a bike really well I can run over the pass really well it didn't
00:21:15
show because I had a hamstring injury but you know if you put it all together like and then the peddling was always my
00:21:20
critical moment and I first time ever I could deliver a good pedal it wasn't
00:21:25
fast but I I had the fastest time on the day as the individual woman and they couldn't gain any time on me and that
00:21:31
was really rewarding because in the back back in the days it was like oh yeah she
00:21:34
keeps saying this every year the same thing she works on her pedaling daddy dadd like i' have been working on my
00:21:39
pedaling and you know it's so frustrating when you have been but on day it just doesn't you still scared or
00:21:46
you can't put it together and then finally it it just I could deliver what I was saying and I was like oh that felt
00:21:53
that win felt so much better than all the I mean the all the wins are great and I'm grateful for it and I worked
00:21:58
hard for it but that one felt complete and then I was like that's it I was like
00:22:04
it no more I've done what I wanted um yeah but here I am again yeah so scker for punishment so yeah for
00:22:13
anyone that doesn't know the um the the ins and outs of the coast to coast event
00:22:16
so you do the event known as the longest day yes so that's um Bike Run kayak bike
00:22:22
you run off the beach for 2.2k yeah and then you bike I think 55k and then you run over Golds pass what's it like 33 uh
00:22:32
maybe 30 33 I think it's maybe 30 or maybe yeah around 30 it's it's intense I
00:22:38
I did that a few a few years ago and it's like a lot of it's not actually
00:22:41
running it's like yeah you're hopping over Boulders and stuff you like imagine
00:22:45
a goat it's intense and it's it's uh it's very very Steep and then it gets to
00:22:50
gets to Flap it at the end and you're running over like massive massive River
00:22:53
stones for maybe 8 or nine kilometers yeah it's like a river Beed run eventually up Hill up Upstream yeah it's
00:22:59
a so you do that and then um after the run you back on the bike for a bit yeah for 15ks you bike on the main highway to
00:23:06
the Mount white bridge and then you jump in the boat and pedal 7 kilometers down
00:23:12
the W M Gary River 7 Z yes and then you jump back on your bike and then you bike
00:23:19
another 70 kilometers probably one of the most boring roads here in New Zealand it's so straight but it's I
00:23:26
guess it's the good thing you don't have to think much about it just put your
00:23:29
head down and ride for your live yeah so and to do it in to to win it like how many hours is that how many hours does
00:23:36
it take 12 and a half to 13 or 12 to 13 sort of in that yeah and that's that's
00:23:42
going full noise right that's not [ __ ] around at all that's yeah yeah pretty much yeah yeah
00:23:47
yeah that's a lot um oh so so that um dnf in 2020 that's not your only adversity are you broke your back in
00:23:55
2009 I did yeah so you broke yeah you this this amazing so you broke your back and then um then you came back and did
00:24:01
the Iron Man and cona like a few months how did you break your back what I was mountain biking which is in onea
00:24:09
in a forest which is called sticky forest and I was going actually quite slow but it's a very sort of narrow
00:24:15
single track and I just clipped the tree I just I don't know why bumped into the
00:24:20
tree and then I got pushed off obviously and then I heard this cracking noise like oh my God I was just lying on the
00:24:27
ground I like go that doesn't sound good but I got back up got back on the bike
00:24:32
because I was up with a maid and I caught up with him and I was breathing he you know like like carefully he like
00:24:38
are you right he's like oh I feel like I don't know I just had a crash he like oh
00:24:41
okay a crash and I carried on biking with him down to ivelt toown I said oh let's get
00:24:46
out of sticky let's just go flat but at every pedal stroke I was like man this
00:24:50
is not good I said I might have broken something and so I decided to go home and then my FL that mate at the time she
00:24:58
was a nurse and she's like uh I was trying to stretch it out and then I went
00:25:04
up into the house and she's like you look a bit weird I was like yeah I'm
00:25:07
just a bit broken or I don't know B so and then she kind of did some what is it
00:25:12
called like an exam and he like oh I think I called the doctor which was a good friend of her so she just came
00:25:17
around it's like I think you got a broken bone there broken that's that's Terri is there a
00:25:24
chance you could have end up like confined to a chair can can find to like paralyze oh no it
00:25:30
was just one of these Vera things um wasn't too bad I guess that's why they're like Jesus you you were you look
00:25:36
way too good to have a broken bag you know like I was like yeah yeah yeah you know but I I think that's again the body
00:25:43
is an amazing thing when things happen like you and I guess because they've been sporty and physically I don't know
00:25:50
no I don't know I had broken ribs and I I certainly was broken I got to move was
00:25:56
like I'm dead well I'm not dead so anyway it wasn't I think it was bad but not as bad but it definitely um
00:26:03
put me out for a few months yeah but then you were back doing the full Iron Man and con full Iron Man by the way
00:26:08
that's like a a 4K swim 160k bike ride a 3.8k Swim 180k Bike Marathon yeah yeah yeah but I guess
00:26:17
it was a it was this life um this childhood dream I I had when I was a little child I really want to do the
00:26:26
Hawaiian Iron Man and it didn't matter if I'm Pro or AG group or but I just
00:26:30
wanted to fulfill my dream and in 2009 I qualified the aim was to qualify in Tao
00:26:35
and do it all at once and you know like when you have a wish take it off and that's how it happened and I had this
00:26:41
amazing community in mon car they they actually raised a lot of funds for me that I can actually go because I just
00:26:48
didn't you know I just didn't had that money to do but they just yeah there was
00:26:52
so much more involved than just me going and doing you know going to the world Jam so um and I knew because it's so
00:26:59
expensive it will be a one-off I don't know how other people afford unless you
00:27:02
go I guess that's why you have sponsors and yeah they PID a big buck but yeah
00:27:07
anyway and because it's just me like there's no family around that would say
00:27:11
you know that I have support from um Mom and you know not Mom I should bring Mom
00:27:16
and Daddy but you know from the family A oneway Wagon trying to wave my wife make
00:27:21
my way through uh achieve my childhood dream anyway I didn't want to let these
00:27:25
people down and we booked already flights I'm pretty sure we had everything booked and we had this party
00:27:30
um they organized a big party for me yeah like a home thing oh it was amazing yeah we raised over $3,000 on the door
00:27:39
it was a big yeah so it was cool and I still had my you know I think we had six months still to get ready but I knew
00:27:47
with a broken bag it will be you know the aim was just to complet it there was no I mean I still came third but you
00:27:55
know it wasn't pretty yeah yeah yeah yeah one one thing I've learned from um
00:27:59
doing this this podcast almost two years now and speaking to some amazing people
00:28:02
is that there there there's only one cheat code for success and that's hard
00:28:06
work it seems like that's the only unfortunately like everyone wants like an easy solution right and that's the
00:28:12
only that's the only common threat with every High performer I've had here hard
00:28:15
[ __ ] work it is it is and it's like sometimes I have to remind myself that's
00:28:21
you know the outcome of the money might come later because right now I'm just
00:28:24
putting in the hard work but there's no money and it's like oh oh my God is it
00:28:28
paying off it will pay off I'm 100% sure it will pay off yeah yeah you just have
00:28:32
to keep believing so what does an average training week look like for you just like an average boring one so say
00:28:38
do you mean in terms of uh the average hours ID do or yeah well yeah we start with hours it's probably like on an
00:28:45
average week and then a heavy week 25 25 and heavy probably goes over 30 but it will be probably not many there will be
00:28:54
won't be huge amount of weeks of over 30 plus oh don't lie [Laughter] Simone so so so so on a real heavy week
00:29:09
say say 45 hours a day yeah like usually I have sort of easy days like for an example this week
00:29:16
would look like yesterday I had a big weekend um which wasn't probably scheduled from the coach but I just play
00:29:24
catchup which I should probably not do and sometimes because I'm coaching myself now is like don't do this ketchup
00:29:30
game but anyway so yesterday I had an easy easy cycle just a v train session or an easy spin outside and then just a
00:29:38
an easy run for an hour whatever and then today was supposed to be some track you know some speed running and I can't
00:29:47
probably a pedal I think and tomorrow would be probably like a combination of maybe a bike just kind of
00:29:56
duration and probably a run as well and then on Thursday usually I have like a a
00:30:02
workout on the bike and then a run off the bike oh my God I'm giving my training away
00:30:08
stop are you are you quite um do you keep your cards quite close to your chest do you do like do you do you share
00:30:14
your your training on stra or anything or no no I don't really but it's like I
00:30:19
love sharing things but I don't know many female athletes or pro athletes they share anything with with other
00:30:26
females so oh that's it's interesting yeah wow so it's not like a not like an
00:30:32
exchanging of information or ideas no like I talked to a tri Le the other day how how long did it take you to run a Lu
00:30:38
in Monica and she's a pro and you know how Pros they know everything down to
00:30:42
the second and she's like I don't know it's like [ __ ] you do know I'm not
00:30:48
naming it but it's like you do know you know like you know every down to the
00:30:53
millisecond he's so in tune with times and everything like that's so competitive yeah it's like this is
00:31:00
interesting we're not even compatible because she's doing Trion whatever you
00:31:05
know like itu whatever and I'm doing multisport oh sorry I haven't actually
00:31:09
answered your question before with multisport I guess that's different like the coast is very different to an
00:31:14
Adventure Race because it's on a day it's just a few hours or sometimes 10 11
00:31:18
12 hours but that's it and it's a course that's marked that's given you just
00:31:22
follow you don't have to navigate you don't have a compass and the adventure
00:31:27
side is you know Adventure races you have Old School compass no GPS nothing no marked course you find your way the
00:31:35
quickest way to the next checkpoint um does it take yeah how do you how do you train
00:31:41
for that is it just being um is it just training yourself for endurance and making sure you're okay with sleep
00:31:48
deprivation or what or with the god zone or with those Adventure races I guess what I I have never learned anything
00:31:54
like it um and never heard about it when I was in Germany but I guess that's the
00:31:59
advantage not Advantage but probably in other countries too that they grew up with orienteering and um Road gaining
00:32:06
you know and they they they get taught get taught at school I don't know map
00:32:10
braiding and you know looking at the landscape and finding Clues and having all these really cool games and being in
00:32:16
nature and I had I haven't had that since I came here I was like wow this is
00:32:21
actually yeah I that's something I really want to learn a bit more after this following the path and and you um
00:32:29
you you managed to fit all this training in with um like employment and stuff so
00:32:33
just up until just recently you've been like a life card in a Poland Monica yeah
00:32:38
but um I have to say the last probably three or four no three years I do sort of cut down on work yeah in the final
00:32:47
month leing into into the coast because I just feel like that's me personally I
00:32:52
just want to I guess I get so not obsessed but I'm kind of driven I want to give it my best and someone said just
00:32:58
imagine you could give it you Absolut like what would you imagine you give it you know it's a big commitment but I
00:33:04
guess it's either all or nothing you know I'm all in on I can't do this half
00:33:08
half which I've done in the past I Tred to do multisport and you know Iron Man
00:33:13
and Trion and you just hover around on always kind of scratching sort of being at the top level but you not quite there
00:33:21
because you just and you not committed 100% you know like it's almost like an
00:33:25
excuse which is like I hate excuses like and then a few years ago I just like bang okay I stop work and I use my
00:33:32
savings which is probably not the way to do it but anyway um hopefully will pay off not hopefully but usually hard work
00:33:40
and dedication and even if it doesn't pay off like in 20920 is it was heartbreaking and yes
00:33:46
you lost money but at the end like I think you learned so much more than any money could pay for it as well you know
00:33:54
yeah doesn't make sense yeah well it's um should we go back and um zoom in on
00:33:59
some of the early years in Germany yeah yeah okay so you so you're growing up in
00:34:03
whereabouts in Germany uh the bottom South right and and you're you're a
00:34:06
sporty kid you're into inline skating oh anything just anything and everything we
00:34:12
we we like naturally naturally talented or naturally fast or anything or I don't know it was I grew up in a
00:34:19
very small village with about 800 people so it was very small and I guess you just kids just having fun really you
00:34:26
know there was no pressure mom never said oh you need to go into your running you know go Athletics or dance class or
00:34:33
it was all self-driven and I just I don't know I just loved playing hang out
00:34:39
with my mates they were mainly males and um I played soccer basketball volleyball
00:34:45
i l the team sports and I also loved Athletics and gymnastics doing your own individ individual
00:34:51
Sport and yeah I skate love skateboarding like just yeah just having fun I guess but all quite lowkey I knew
00:35:00
I I was quite good running like at 800s but even to at the competitions we had and I you know when I was running the
00:35:07
best um they would say oh you need to come to get better you need to get to a different Squad and you know you need
00:35:12
someone to drive you there mom was like I can't do that like we are working we
00:35:16
got two old you got two older brothers they go to soccer I'm not here to be your shauer you know so it was just like
00:35:22
okay that's fine I just gonna just keep having fun and I was happy with just
00:35:26
being that the kit that just turns up every now and then in some and and um the um yeah we can talk
00:35:35
about this in um as much as little as you want the the eating disorder where did where did that
00:35:41
begin oh my eating disorder so that that came about I just left school I think I
00:35:48
was like 15 so I finished school early and I guess do you want to mean how it came or
00:35:57
like yeah it was I guess um it for me it was a wealth a wealth like I I got funny
00:36:03
pictures in my head and made me kind of really sick and U nauseous and I just wanted to throw up and that's what I did
00:36:10
and I guess that got triggered because of my past which came up when I was a teenager like just um 14 years old yeah
00:36:19
yeah you want to chit about that or yeah I can check pretty open about it because
00:36:23
it's made me who I am and yeah yeah I've read some read some articles about it
00:36:28
and stuff but I'm sure every every time you every time you chat about it I'm
00:36:31
sure it's uh exhausting probably more exhausting than running goat goats pass
00:36:36
it's not a nice thing to chat about yeah so so you start having flashbacks when
00:36:39
you're 14 about some um sexual abuse that happened when you're real young
00:36:43
yeah yeah which was from the neighbor which was like we used to it was like a grand day to us just looking after us
00:36:50
and it just happened when I was four or five years old which at the time I had no idea you know kids are so innocent
00:36:55
like they're just so young young they don't really know and even they think
00:36:58
it's funny but when you get older and I guess that's what happened to me I
00:37:02
forgot about I forgot all about it till I became a teenager and had my first boyfriend and we were playing basketball
00:37:08
at the time and he grabbed me just to pretend uh protect that I don't throw a
00:37:13
hoop and that movement from holding me from behind just triggered everything I was like what is going on and every
00:37:21
night I was just like thinking about that movement what happened and every day I would just it just unraveled more
00:37:28
and more and I was like Wow and it just made me from this happy child to some I would say probably severe depressed
00:37:36
within days you know like even mom was like what's going on with you and I was
00:37:40
like I think I'm going psycho like absolutely I think I'm watching too many
00:37:44
horror movies or psycho things which I didn't but I was like wow something is
00:37:50
not right and then one night she asked me again and I just unloaded and she's
00:37:54
like oh is that what happened happened in the past and I was like shell Shong is like what do you know from the past
00:38:02
and then she said oh yeah when you were little this is what happened next door and you told us all about it and then
00:38:07
Dad went over and confronted him and he had all his excuses but then of course we got told not to go there anymore and
00:38:13
of course he had he had triggers he was like oh come with me and I give you lollies upstairs D Dy da you know like
00:38:20
the most normal common thing for a five four year old you know like to go with and like oh this is so cool and because
00:38:28
it and it wasn't you know nothing was painful or you know I had no idea um just weird behaviors out of that but
00:38:36
anyway enough of this I don't want but that was the the beginning and um I guess my poor not poor parents I
00:38:45
guess they they punished for life as well but I forgiven them and um I guess yeah how like how do how do you forgive
00:38:52
them because they must be I don't know I suppose like if you uh yeah I don't know I'm probably
00:38:58
projecting here but if you look at it from a from their perspective and a place of Compassion maybe they're like
00:39:03
uh if we go to the police and the authorities it's just going to drag you through years and years of this maybe
00:39:08
it's best just to confront him and tell him to stay the [ __ ] away and leave it
00:39:13
that but I guess for them they didn't really know how to deal with it and for
00:39:17
them for them the best and easiest for them was to just shut it all down and nothing happened and we don't talk about
00:39:23
it sweep it under because they just moved there and they were worried about what the neighbor thing you know this
00:39:27
whole what other people think and we don't want to be that the the the people
00:39:32
they like oh you know like yeah so that that was all sweet till till till I was 14 and um had this this unraveled trauma
00:39:42
coming up and because um it affected my life so much and I guess I didn't know
00:39:47
how to deal with it that I just started having panic attacks and um hyperventilating every time a guy would
00:39:55
come close to me or teachers was like it was just awful um and I've seen psychologist and then later down I guess
00:40:03
I told the you know talk to the P psychologist and then they he would then I guess do the job he would go and tell
00:40:11
my parents off but they had a whole major of ripple effect on me coming home still living at home when you're 40 you
00:40:16
know and I got severely punished for that I was like oh my god I've got no one to talk to so then when I left
00:40:23
school and then the funniest thing is I left school and I didn't really know I
00:40:26
had no purpose in life and mom was like oh just do a job do any job and I got your job in the bakery as an apprentice
00:40:34
and I was like okay and that was probably the worst thing for me with an eating dis AO but you just don't know
00:40:40
you know but anyway I did this apprentiship and it was hard work you've got long hours I couldn't do my sport I
00:40:46
guess it was a major thing too because sport maybe that's why sport kep me kind
00:40:50
of going and alive and I was thriving with sport because I could just let go of my ener and maybe deep down that was
00:40:58
the unconscious to pack it all up and like sport was sort of my my wealth you know what I mean even that class I
00:41:04
remember a teacher gave me the only permission like I was the only child that could get up and walk around
00:41:10
because I would just break all the chairs all the time from ging and annoying my classmate because I
00:41:15
was like so flim like just so vibrant anyway long ramble yeah no no that's good what's your what's
00:41:24
your what's your Rel ship like with your parents now like like you know have you
00:41:29
forgiven them is it okay or is it always going to be a little bit weird no um I guess that's why I'm on the other side
00:41:35
of the world as well so it wasn't just the language but it was also sort of Escape how far can I go to not be away
00:41:41
from my parents I mean you know the when you I guess it took me a long time to to
00:41:47
come to peace with all of this and even understanding them and and then I Revel their situation and when you unravel
00:41:55
their situations like oh there's no wonder we all a bit not effed up but you
00:42:00
know bit screwed up because if you look at their lives and what they've been
00:42:03
through it's like oh my God but no one talks no one that's I think find I find
00:42:08
it so hard that we don't talk about certain things or even as a family and I
00:42:11
guess that's what I learned through therapy and I'm happy to talk about these things now talking has helped me
00:42:17
to just get it out of me rather than suppressing it or you know like you're botling it up it's been a big kiwi thing
00:42:25
over the years as well we're very good at just things guess there's this whole
00:42:28
me mental mental health you know like this yeah you just have to you really have to talk about it let it out it's
00:42:35
like this when you open a champagne B you know and I guess with the sorry with the eating disorder the that helped me
00:42:43
to deal with the pressure that was like this instant just the pictures not pressure but it was like a pressure
00:42:48
release like for me it felt like I guess when you are taking drugs or drinking it
00:42:52
felt like I was just numbing myself and I guess first it started with um just not eating or whatever I ate I was
00:42:59
throwing up and even just water I just needed that throwing up feeling which is so bizarre because now when I get sick
00:43:04
I'm like oh my God how did I do this under the purpose you know you know when
00:43:10
you get a tummy back and you're like it's awful in anyway but it was this
00:43:15
that was like my release of just I don't know being like a quick fix and so more I did
00:43:21
it so more I felt just released like just this throwing up feeling was like my key of just surviving like scratching
00:43:28
an edge yeah well I did cut myself back in the days too like I was just like cutting and doing self harm a lot just
00:43:35
to deal with that pain like that I guess when Mom told me that they knew about it
00:43:40
was like someone's just ramed the knife into my heart and it's my parents and
00:43:45
you think they are the people they supposed to look after me and support me you know what I mean like if I would
00:43:50
have a child and I would find anything I would hear anything about it I think I would kill you know like i% I would be
00:43:56
like okay I can't kill this guy but I would be wow I think that's why that's
00:44:03
why it's so that's why it's so um hard to hard to understand because it's you
00:44:08
were a you you know you were like a defenseless little girl and you did everything right like you you told um
00:44:13
you know you the people in a position of power yeah and still nothing was nothing
00:44:18
was done for you and that's [ __ ] heartbreaking and I don't know how you
00:44:20
how you get past that mentally um but [ __ ] you've done the work haven't you
00:44:24
but it's like you you you lost your entire teenage years really didn't you
00:44:28
oh yeah that was um yeah sometimes I feel like I have some catching up no I don't no I suppose this is your like the
00:44:37
teenager years which you s of Lost with s of your University of life like you went through all this adversity then and
00:44:43
it's made you the incredible you know absolute Savage that you are today was
00:44:48
how work um nine years of nine months of therapy like I was locked away for six months and then I had three months in
00:44:55
sort of um a living area where you on the clinic side but you more introduced into a
00:45:01
normal living but you've got doctors and everything there and then I got put into
00:45:06
like it's not an orphanage home but they put young teenagers there to to grow
00:45:12
there you know to learn their life skills again and um get a job and they have a I had two caregivers looking
00:45:19
after me and helping me with guiding me through life again and they I got to thank them a lot they're still alive and
00:45:26
still in contact with them and it's yeah they yeah they they must be they must be
00:45:31
so proud have they have they indicated how proud they are like oh yeah one of the guys his name is B and he got me
00:45:38
back into running and he was this when you were when you were a smoker oh yes yeah had to imagine I had to imagine the
00:45:46
three time Coast to Coast um being a smoker I think I have a bit of act addictive personality May oh no I think
00:45:54
I still have it but but when I do things I don't do them halfway I either all in
00:45:59
or nothing oh my God just good in bed we were you a good smoking like how many a
00:46:04
day uh few packages oh my God that is disgusting mainly mainly at the weekends when you're out probably you know like
00:46:12
yeah and then always with coffee and alcohol you know when you just socializing yeah yes you're R
00:46:21
ex things have changed or they have changed tremendously I mean I had a long time now you know we talking about 20
00:46:28
years yeah yeah yeah yeah you had to do the work though no one else could do that for you he I mean it would have
00:46:34
been easy just to to to to stay down there and yeah wallow in yourself pity or be a victim or whatever and you chose
00:46:41
the hard one you had to do the work but you had to do it yourself yeah and that's it's it's so hard and I
00:46:47
understand when people are depr you know like when they say oh I just can't do it
00:46:51
like I don't know if it's a life lesson about everything you do in life um
00:46:56
sometimes it is hard work and sometimes you just have to take it off as you go and put one foot in front of the other
00:47:02
and don't look at the big outcome you're just going to do it as I you know like
00:47:07
even getting out of my eating disorder it wasn't that they're like oh you have
00:47:10
to completely stop from today you know it wasn't that they put me in a clinic
00:47:15
and you know you're going to be you can't throp anymore whatever there it
00:47:19
was actually quite amazing they they gave me like a diary and I had to record every everything and I I guess I went in
00:47:27
there I was I was I just I was 17 at the time and then in the clinic I turned 18
00:47:33
but I was such a young child you know like literally I was the youngest with 70 women only women and they had all
00:47:40
sorts of addiction from alcohol drugs medication anything you name it obesity anorexia the whole
00:47:47
spectrum and but they gave me the I guess again they can only do so much it's up to me
00:47:55
what what I do with it like I've got this one chance in my life and I take it
00:48:00
and work on it and I know it's going to be hard but hopefully I learn enough and
00:48:05
be strong enough to come out you know that I can regulate or come out on the other side like not come out but
00:48:12
establish myself well enough that I can have sort of a normal life by myself and
00:48:17
not you know like without the addiction that I don't think about the addiction
00:48:21
that the addiction doesn't um how do you say this sorry sometimes I struggle with
00:48:25
ulating myself you don't I think you're doing great with English it doesn't
00:48:28
Define you addiction takes over you and everything everything in life is based you know when I was 15 it was about it
00:48:35
wasn't about life anymore for two three years I was like not work not friends
00:48:40
not family I did not care all I care was when can I throw up how can I throw up how many times can I throw up and it was
00:48:46
this constant cycle before you go to bed when you wake up the first thing it was
00:48:50
basically all around your addiction but how can I have you know like learn learning how can I have a
00:48:57
life with not thinking about this anymore and that I don't need this anymore as an outcome does that make
00:49:02
sense yeah so there was um that was amazing when I went to the clinic like that wasn't like your knife on your
00:49:09
chest like no cut it all you know like and if you thow up we going to punish you no it was like I guess this it's you
00:49:16
take it it's your guidance like I and I recorded everything and I was really
00:49:20
open and honest I guess that's a good thing about me I I am very open and honest and I didn't want to let anyone
00:49:26
down and even my family I wanted them to be proud of me you know that but for them it was quite funny it's like oh you
00:49:32
go into a clinic and you come about you just go put the car into a garage and you come out and you the old Simone
00:49:38
again it's like no so that that was sort of I guess the first step into the you
00:49:43
know a new life um and then I because they're like oh you can't come home and
00:49:47
live with us again I was like no I actually if I come home I'm going to be in the same Circle in the same [ __ ] it's
00:49:53
like putting alcoholic bag into the bar like and and even my employeer at the time he was quite amazing because it was
00:49:58
in the bakery and he said he knew I was pretty sick and I had an e order and he's like I give you the time all the
00:50:04
time in the world you're just going to go and look after yourself and you can
00:50:07
come back and finish off your apprenticeship whenever you want you just go and look after yourself so I'm
00:50:11
very grateful for this opportunity to but he's not alive anymore unfortunately
00:50:15
he passed away but amazing amazing boss heart but I learned so much yeah and then with the clinic yeah the team was
00:50:23
amaz like the I have to say like the the help I had it was just yeah next level like I mean it's
00:50:31
hard as it's like over here you know first [ __ ] needs to happen before they
00:50:35
take action like I had to collapse in a club which is quite funny in a nightclub in order by the way can I just
00:50:42
say it's it's not that funny but to get immediate um uh prescription into a clinic you know we
00:50:51
were fighting for half a year with with the support in my head and they're like
00:50:56
oh we just put you in a waiting this she's not bad enough you know she's not
00:50:59
bad enough it's like you hear us so often here with the health system it's
00:51:02
like oh people it's okay you know they're still walking they're still
00:51:05
breathing it's like when they say I have a problem or you know when they call out
00:51:09
for help you should not just put them on hold but I guess I don't know if we need
00:51:15
more educated or you know doctors or psychologist I don't know but um yeah anyway I don't want to go there now but
00:51:21
I had this amazing team with me and um amazing psychologist nurturing me through this whole process through the
00:51:28
six months and um first I thought after four weeks I can't wait to get out of
00:51:32
here after two months and I keep extending and extending because I got more into it and I you I guess you just
00:51:39
felt so safe in there you know suddenly you just like this little um chicken blossoming again yeah um and
00:51:47
it's funny because I used to I turned on my sort of feelings and everything off
00:51:51
so when I was up there in the clinic we were living on the top of a hill I put on my my roller blades on one day and I
00:51:56
decided I'm going to roller blade down to the next Village and it was pretty steep and then
00:52:02
I realized I was breaking on the roller blades my brakes were disappearing and I
00:52:06
had no more brakes and kid you not it was the first time I actually feeled for my life for I don't know how many years
00:52:13
because I guess what I haven't also said like um I tried to do a suicide attempt
00:52:18
when I was 14 yeah so that didn't work but anyway I had I just wanted to die
00:52:23
literally you know after this whole I just had know life purpose but anyway I was so happy and I had to run off into a
00:52:30
padic and Tumbl to and I was all bruised and you know scarred up and with with cow [ __ ] and all [ __ ] I came back to the
00:52:37
clinic and people like oh my god what happened like I was just being was like oh my God I just feel fear I want to be
00:52:45
alive that's interesting isn't it so memories is like oh that's actually
00:52:49
quite severe so it's almost like an aan anyway because Suddenly It's like um you
00:52:53
felt like you had nothing worth living for Suddenly It's like you did you realize faced with potential death you
00:52:58
didn't want to die yeah I was like oh man I do really want to live like and I
00:53:02
had a few other like both moments where I'm like one of my best friends um I
00:53:06
grew up with on the streets she was severely in love and just seeing her with her partner being so happy I was
00:53:13
like I want to be like this one day so I had a few amazing key moments where I'm
00:53:17
like no I actually so you know the anorexia bulimia it was it was all there for a purpose it just I just didn't know
00:53:25
what to do anymore I just you know what it was my only coping mechanism like this this this pain and this oh and also
00:53:33
because I felt so ashamed of the body and I guess because someone took over you and did all these funny things with
00:53:40
you and you know like when you get the feelings and sensation and oh it was all mixed up I'm like this I couldn't look
00:53:47
under the I could look in the in the mirror but I couldn't look underneath my
00:53:51
neck basically I just hated it like I just uh it was disgusting which now pretty proud of my
00:53:59
body it does amazing things amazing things and what we we know what we humans are capable of and just even what
00:54:06
happened in the past yes it's been there and it's it's a sky it's always going to
00:54:10
be there but I learned I know it's 10 years now but it's it's becoming mess
00:54:15
less meaningless and less hurtful if that makes sense like I can happily talk about it now and don't break out into
00:54:21
tears and you know what even it's sad and it's emotional but it's like like
00:54:25
yeah was there was it yeah was there a while where it was still hard to talk about oh yeah oh yeah yeah and even then
00:54:32
was not long ago a few years ago or maybe a year ago I had to do a course online for work
00:54:38
about what was it some safety procedures when we work with kids as a swim school
00:54:44
teacher and you know with violence and how we can potentially spot certain things when kids have been um abused or
00:54:52
punished or you know like um and it just didn't ring the bells but I got really
00:54:57
emotional like oh my God I feel so sorry for these youngsters like you know they
00:55:01
they don't know and if I don't know how a grownup can take this away from any
00:55:07
child you know and I guess there must be so un uncoordinated or are screwed up up
00:55:13
here to even think that way it's like or they have had the same thing happen to
00:55:17
them it's like I could for me now I think could I would I do this to anyone because this happened to me I could not
00:55:24
I I would probably kill the other person you know um yeah and I always think man
00:55:31
if I not kill them I shouldn't say is on a podcast but you know like yeah I definitely had some thoughts like if
00:55:37
something happens to even my niece at home was like man I'm gonna your auntie
00:55:41
will come in Yeah well yeah cut the balls off is um is the um is the the the old
00:55:51
neighbor in Germany still alive alive no no he died long time ago yeah was he ever held to account or did he face no
00:56:00
that's I guess another thing what I guess that made me so how do you say angry and upset about it because he got
00:56:06
no no punishment for it he just happily died kind well he probably wasn't happy
00:56:13
I don't know but you know he died before this all unraveled and then even even still um the neighbors are
00:56:21
still good friends we just grade with my mom and dad and I don't even know if
00:56:24
they know to the state to be honest I have no idea and it's it's um it's like
00:56:28
a family secret yeah it's a it's a topic well not anymore and it hasn't been for a long
00:56:35
time because I talk story to tell yeah yeah which I think it's actually a good
00:56:39
story and more people should actually should be brave enough and you know because it's not it shouldn't be normal
00:56:46
it shouldn't happen like no absolutely it shouldn't and your your your parents
00:56:50
are they um are they full of like like guilt or shame or regret or remorse have they have they verbalized how they
00:56:58
feel yeah it's hard I think they're not good talking about their feelings they
00:57:03
just I guess must be in a generation thing they're quite hard on them themselves and they probably like oh we
00:57:08
just had to move on it's like when you go to war you just have to you know that
00:57:13
happened bom went off Bo we have to survive you know like it was a bit like just putting on the carpet move on and
00:57:19
then they're a bit you know religious so then they go to church talk to whoever and think it's all good it
00:57:31
happened and I get this it happened in the past it's not I guess how we try and
00:57:34
be positive you know what happened in the past you can't change it I know but
00:57:38
if you haven't like for me I can't just like if I I probably oh my God imagine
00:57:43
this wouldn't happened when I was 14 and I would unravel this now oh my it would
00:57:47
be a disaster imagine I would have these flashbacks now you know like having a partner and imagine having a child you
00:57:54
know like anyway yeah so I think I'm glad it happened and it made me who I am
00:58:02
today and um yeah but you you did you did you lost some some years which are are really
00:58:11
cool years in a person's life though right yeah I I feel like I you know even
00:58:16
I don't it's probably a common thing these days that you are 13 14 15 and you
00:58:20
just you all partying like I was I think I was pretty pretty happy I had and even now I love
00:58:26
parties I don't do them right now so much um because I'm too focused on like
00:58:33
like like a c loing party the night before an event yeah I probably give asms so what's your what's your um
00:58:42
what's your mental health like now is it pretty good yeah I think so I mean I have my
00:58:48
ups and downs but who hasn't got them you know and I guess the past definitely
00:58:53
has left some um how do you say um scars definitely some scars and I have I have
00:58:59
to admit I have massive trust issues which a friend always caus me up she would laugh about this
00:59:05
Emily it's like it's okay Simone and then she gives me a Big C so you can't
00:59:10
trust me um and even my partner but I definitely fight not fight but this a big I struggle with not on a daily base
00:59:18
but you know because I am open and honest and I guess it helped me to even overcome what I been through in the past
00:59:24
because I'm more talk and rather than piling it up and whatever I whatever goes on up here sometimes I blur it out
00:59:30
and sometimes it's maybe not a good thing to blur go you but at least it comes out you know what I mean like
00:59:36
especially for my my poor partner but he then can kind of puts it into play like
00:59:41
that's something don't worry about it you know what I which I worry about it
00:59:45
yeah or when I say oh I I can't I struggle to trust them all these people probably have some Mischief up for me or
00:59:52
they want to ad me you know like as an example it's like no why would they they're your friends but you know it's
00:59:56
so creepy it's like so I still have certain things they it's your like default setting yeah and I feel like
01:00:03
when I get more tired and more stressed or you know like not enough sleep or sleep is a big thing I get more and more
01:00:08
I guess it's when people get anxious and I guess anxiet anxiety groups I was like
01:00:13
why should I have anxiety there's nothing you know nothing scary it's like
01:00:17
I guess it's just me it's like oh you need to just style back have good food
01:00:21
you know there where nutrition nutrition comes in as well like nutrition has so much more in life than
01:00:27
just feeding ourselves like nutrition plays a massive role in your overall well-being mental health especially
01:00:33
mental health oh sorry I get so aggravated about this in a positive F no no it's true it's true because everyone
01:00:41
has um good days and bad days and when I'm having a bad day I think [ __ ] if if
01:00:45
I wasn't um physically fit and doing all the things that I know are good for my
01:00:50
own personal mental health imagine how much worse I'd feel oh yeah and yeah so
01:00:56
I one thing I noticed about you um so you flew up from W for this podcast today and on the plan you're reading a
01:01:03
book about resilience now it's hard to imagine a more resilient person than than you I mean you've won the coast to
01:01:10
coast so many times you do these insane God Zone races um you've done all this
01:01:14
work that we talked about in your teenage years what um what are you reading a resilience book for what do
01:01:19
you still need to work on I guess you know I I feel like we we probably going to learn like a human like for me I
01:01:26
thought when I gra was like oh the adults they know it all and you've finished learning now I I guess I'm an
01:01:32
adult I'm 43 and I feel like oh my God there's so much to learn you know and
01:01:37
that's what I want I want to you know even for the coast or for anything in life maybe there's one key element in
01:01:43
there that just gives me that other not resilience but the other little key to to to keep my thoughts more in control
01:01:51
or keep me more in the moment or motivate me more or to bring out something else what I want to do after
01:01:57
my my my Coast or racing or you know like so you know it's it's it's good
01:02:04
it's like I want to evolve and I'm I'm kind of searching for what else is there
01:02:08
you know how we listen you know um probably a good example like my partner tells me something I should do and then
01:02:15
I go someone else tells me the same thing I was like oh that's a great idea and he's like I just told you the same
01:02:20
thing you know but I heard it somehow it's a different voice or so a different
01:02:24
lens and and and yeah it's like when you PES say what do you know yeah yeah and I just listened to to
01:02:34
him or her and he's like I just told you the same thing you could have saved your
01:02:38
money or you know like yeah oh we we'll get to you we'll get to your partner and
01:02:43
we'll zoom in on him in a second this is Marcel right yes marel he he he was like
01:02:47
a male version of you he's retired now but he's on all your support Crews and
01:02:51
stuff um but he was a Savage as well when he was a competitor oh he's still a
01:02:56
Savage okay but what would your what would your message be to anyone who is listening to the this podcast and is
01:03:03
that their version of rock bottom right now Rock Bottom yeah I mean everyone's
01:03:10
Rock Bottom's like it's hard to imagine like a a rock bottom that is uh that is
01:03:14
deeper than what yours was but um you know everyone everyone has it at some point so someone might be hearing this
01:03:19
at um at that moment for them what probably lots of messages I just like I know it sounds awful like just have to
01:03:26
keep hanging there and I guess what I said before like sometimes you can't see
01:03:29
the light but you just have to break it down and you don't look at the weeks or
01:03:32
the months you look at every day sometimes you take it down in hours break it down down I just have to
01:03:37
survive to lunch not that you say after after lunch you're going to kill yourself no no that's not I don't mean
01:03:42
that but just um I would definitely reach out try and your best friends if they if it's too
01:03:51
much for them my you to make you know like there's defin there's so many
01:03:56
Health lines now these days um definitely I think what helped me is talking like even in my earlier years
01:04:02
even you know with my eating disorder or in between I I found this amazing lady which was sort of a coach athletic coach
01:04:09
and she was sort of My Talking Point too again I got punished for talking to her
01:04:14
but you know I just needed to talk and that was good you know I just needed to get this off my chest um and it doesn't
01:04:21
matter yeah I guess I wouldn't talk to anybody my problems but yeah it's like I
01:04:27
know it can be hard and horrible and I I probably had severe depressions or not long ago I had a few weeks where I was
01:04:34
pretty low and even my partner was a bit worried and I was like man what's going
01:04:37
on I think it had a hormonal there's a hormonal imbalance which we try and work
01:04:42
out right now um maybe actually I can talk to rics about this regarding Foods later on it's actually a good point but
01:04:49
you know it was quite a a hard time where I'm like this is so not me you know where you're really down and you're
01:04:55
not happy you do your training you go to work and nothing satisfies you and you just can't see the the light of the
01:05:01
tunnel everything is just St and you feel you don't belong you feel no purpose and people telling you and
01:05:07
you're like but I don't feel it it's awful I can totally relate to this and
01:05:12
it feels awful and I just want to go and take it off them I'll give them a hack
01:05:16
you know someone even sing someone there to listen and give you a hack or just some love I think we need more love um
01:05:24
but okay that I'm getting off topic what's my message um that's a good one
01:05:30
don't give up that's one thing yeah yeah and I know it's hard but I guess that's
01:05:36
what what I'm stand here for too like if it I it was hard but if it you know um
01:05:42
if it was easy everyone would do it everyone would do it but it's not easy that's why even me with competing or
01:05:47
anything in life lots of people don't do it because it's hard even if the people
01:05:52
who successful they didn't become successful because they they did nothing usually you know they put their time
01:05:59
they put their whole life on hold too you know they so obsessed you know any oh go going I'm going going off off
01:06:05
topic again you're right you're right you're good that's good stuff but yeah just
01:06:11
just hanging in there and keep breathing I think that's another thing sleep lots
01:06:17
and just yeah just don't give up and um surround with surround yourself with
01:06:22
good people and if you put it out there if you got hope if you want to be alive and live then you're going to make it
01:06:28
happen but it's hard work it's not going to be easy and it's not going to come to
01:06:31
you flying like absolutely not like that's not what I thought but what I've
01:06:36
been through like in the clinic it was years of you know like that was just the beginning but it was really hard work
01:06:43
and it's sometimes you go you feel like you're walking through much but you know
01:06:46
you have 10 good steps and then you have a 100 step they go boom it beams you back but it's to keep on going like
01:06:53
that's sry my empathy I trying to to put on is like you just have to I know it's
01:06:57
not pretty and it's not easy but you just have to keep going and you have to
01:07:01
do it yourself as well don't you yeah yeah that's the thing is like as I said
01:07:05
I love to come and give you a hug and you can anytime reach out to me I'm always there to listen um but it's no
01:07:11
one can take this burden off you that's the thing like even if you're depressed
01:07:14
like even my partner he's there he's caring for me he's showing me so much
01:07:18
love but you know all he wants is like getting my bloody head is like take it and I'm going to run with it I big a
01:07:24
hole and throw it away oh you know just help me it's like I know I I have to go
01:07:29
through this myself and yeah it's okay but yeah it's like you really want a good good good friends
01:07:35
and teams around and just talking about I think opening up and just getting it off your chest and because even that's
01:07:41
hard for me to say hey I'm actually I'm not well like you know you've ched so
01:07:46
much and just not not long ago a few weeks ago I'm like I feel like this is not good like I might have to see
01:07:53
someone else so you know I need some bloody help I mean I got out of it but I was like this is quite spooky you know
01:07:59
like yeah it's ongoing it never never properly goes away it's it's like but
01:08:03
even the system here is a bit it's a bit sad it's like it's not as easy as not I
01:08:08
mean nothing is easy anyway but it was made much easier in Germany to get some professional help and have access to
01:08:15
psychologists than here it's also a major money thing it's like how do people how can people forward this yeah
01:08:21
here I don't understand I don't know because it's and and then if you go
01:08:25
through the system like I've been when did I get here in 2027 and then maybe early 2010 11 or 12
01:08:34
I had another little dip where I'm like far out I think I have to see you know I
01:08:38
need some professional help and it's like I see you once in a month and it's
01:08:41
like once in a month you're kidding me I would be dead in a month okay I won't be
01:08:46
dead but you know was like man I guess just anyway I don't know how we solve
01:08:51
this problem but yeah it is a bit um never goes away J your um your your teenage self though if she was sitting
01:08:57
in that rehab facility and someone said to her when you're 43 you're going to be
01:09:01
living in New Zealand you're going to be winning this event year after year after
01:09:05
year you're going to be an amazing person you're going to have an amazing
01:09:07
partner [ __ ] I mean it's it's a pretty good a pretty good ending or it's a
01:09:13
pretty good development rather in life like it would be hard to see at that point when you're at your Rock Bottom to
01:09:19
see how your life is now and how it's evolved or largely through work that you've done on your own but it's um it's
01:09:24
been incredible thank you yeah it's cool you should be proud of yourself thanks I
01:09:29
think that's I don't know if that's a bad thing I from with P like when are
01:09:33
you ever proud of yourself you know like I am I have these moments and I'm very
01:09:36
grateful and I guess that's what I want to pass on to others as well and you can
01:09:41
you know even now with the message like I obviously didn't had the perfect sentence here for the message I want to
01:09:46
give to people who have the lows of the low but um I guess the experience I had and me showing up and fighting on it or
01:09:54
even with events coming back even if you get knocked down and even things don't
01:09:57
fall out with my dnf and yeah yeah so it's it's a good hopefully it inspires
01:10:03
other men woman Trends whatever human to if they have a low and thing or life is
01:10:10
not worth it to it's like no everyone has worth it like you supposed to be here on this planet so so it's sad when
01:10:17
you hear that people had no other option you know and yeah absolutely absolutely
01:10:22
um tell us about so you guys met in China like 20 years ago oh not 20 years ago probably in 200 I think 11 or 12 but
01:10:32
10 years ago yeah yeah and what was it more than 10 years ago because we've I
01:10:36
just counted last night we've been together for nine years what was what was the event in China there was like a
01:10:41
it was one of these multisport events uh a stage race over four days and he was racing in a different team winning team
01:10:50
uh you know and I just came in um got one of these wild cards and I was just happy to be there and it was
01:10:58
actually quite funny because I I heard about him before I actually saw him in person and met him um cuz he he was like
01:11:05
a rock star right he was really really good yeah yeah yeah yeah and he he looked pretty good he still looks good
01:11:12
but he had this long blonde could you believe it he's I probably shouldn't say
01:11:16
his age but he's his 50s and he's still got kind of blonde he's got no gray hair
01:11:20
he's got a Gray beard sometimes when he grows it but he's got still blonde hair
01:11:24
you know like it's unbelievable back in the days he had these blond long Angel
01:11:28
hairs like just not that I anything about outfits but you know anyway he was a stand out and he's
01:11:38
quite musly you know not that I worry about muscles at all but you know just a overall good good human and U sorry my
01:11:46
point was at the time I was working just started working as a lifeguard at the one pool and my uh workmate d which you
01:11:54
might oh yeah yeah another Coast to Coast yeah yeah back in the days who worked at Theo life
01:12:00
go um he said oh my God you need to meet my teammate he's German I was like I
01:12:06
don't want a bloody German gu I don't want to would be nice maybe meet him but
01:12:10
I don't you know he's like you guys could be boyfriend girlfriend my I was
01:12:14
like absolutely no way like I don't want a German boyfriend like he's like you
01:12:18
guys are just so like each other like absolutely and um before before I went to become a lifeguard I was um working
01:12:27
which is quite funny you would laugh about that or maybe not I was working in Organic Bakery or GIC shop in Monica
01:12:34
which was called soul food and I was the baker there making specialized gluten-free baking and I always made um
01:12:41
a lot of sourdough Loaves and D was like I'm going to he started actually before
01:12:47
I met Marcel he took a loaf of him to to bring it to China for marel because marel loved home growing sour or bread
01:12:55
is how we kind of met but not in person the bread was sort of the the the message in
01:13:01
between pretty good bread he's like oh she's she's she's making pretty good
01:13:06
bread but yeah quite hilarious um yeah but funny that you know I didn't apprenti ship with the bakery b b with
01:13:14
my eating disorder didn't finish it and then here I am in New Zealand going back
01:13:18
to Bakery and I got residency with that job becoming you know being a specialized vle right right oh and you
01:13:27
mentioned you worked at the um the Monica pool as well um tell me as someone that's been a lifeguard at a
01:13:31
pool what happens when there's a Code Brown do they shut down the whole pool
01:13:36
you you scoop it out and carry on what goes on I guess there's a procedure But
01:13:41
first you get all the people out and usually they just look at you and it's like well I'm not blowing the whistle
01:13:45
for no reason usually get up get and ideally you don't want to scream into the Hall like
01:13:54
there's a cold BR you don't is it what is it the official name by the way yes
01:14:00
yes we've got all these code names like yeah what else is there give us some
01:14:05
intel only three code red and code yellow and Code Brown what code yellow just we um no it has more to do if a
01:14:14
lifeguard is down okay and if if a patient sorry not patient if there's a real accident like someone has a um a
01:14:22
customer then it's a code r oh okay oh right right wow so we calling ding we
01:14:27
not like you know we've got these colde names and then people have radios everywhere at the front desk and then
01:14:34
they kind of know what's going on you know like sort of yeah cuz are you are
01:14:40
you actually sort of saving anyone in that job or are you mainly just telling people off like don't run no bombs It's
01:14:45
a combination it's actually I know I sometimes take the piss of bit with I'm
01:14:49
just a lifu but it is I guess you've got got a pretty big role because we are
01:14:55
responsible to keeping people you know um safe and risk the minimize the risk and the hazards and I guess heart
01:15:04
attacks do happen occasionally and I guess therefore that's when we jump in sort or we are there anyway to minimize
01:15:10
risk but also if someone has a heart attack or stroke or whatever that we are basically you know we see this thing you
01:15:16
know getting as quick as possible and yeah um yeah more to you know minimize the risk and harm in the Cod BR yeah oh
01:15:27
yes do you still want to hear the procedure about the cob BR yes we get the people out and then we
01:15:35
scoop the as much as we can of the poop out and then depends on the size whatever we definitely have to clear the
01:15:41
pool 100% that you have to get out of the whole pool and we shut it all down chlorinated depends on the size and how
01:15:48
bad and then put the vacuum in and shut it for the day or yeah it depends depends on size for the what size of the
01:15:56
pool no yeah so um we have two pools now we have a new sports facility in Mona and um which is an upgrade from the old
01:16:04
pool we have now a 50 meter oh sorry I wish we had a 50 no we have a 25 meter lane pool La pool and we have a Learners
01:16:11
pool so mainly these thing happen in the Learners pool when we had swimming lessons or even or any you know it it's
01:16:17
hard to and I get it it's sometimes hard when they're so excited you know like it
01:16:21
just happens but um only close the little pool because they all have separate tanks so they don't mingle with
01:16:28
each other and we also have a spa so all these other two pools they stay open and
01:16:31
usually what we do we move the lessons from the learner pool which is much warmer water into the cold lab pool so
01:16:38
they can carry on and if they don't want they get their lesson usually re you
01:16:43
know reur yeah um and then yeah depends on the size and how yeah that's that's
01:16:49
quite you know quick fix kind of thanks I was always curious It's like do they
01:16:54
drain the whole pool is it shut for the day or it did wonder like I grew up in Germany and you know every summer we
01:17:00
went to the outdoors pools or even indoor pools and I can't remember a single day that the pool was ever shut
01:17:06
for cold Brown I was like what happened back like did they just ignore it or did
01:17:13
they not had the tools or the just scoop it out and move on yeah I don't know but
01:17:19
we have it seems like sometimes a seasonal thing or period where there's month and month nothing funny that we
01:17:25
talk about Cole Browns now but you know and then you have one every week or one every day and it's like um a few years
01:17:32
ago we had this weekly pooper I'm not kidding every week on a Thursday afternoon we had a poop sort of
01:17:38
different same Lane different spots so I got quite um intrigued in figuring out who the poopa was and I found the poopa
01:17:46
oh my god really was it intentional or accidental um I think he thought it was just funny yeah intentional yeah but his
01:17:55
mom was very embarrassed like how how old was the kid oh God he was quite old like for the age he was actually not
01:18:02
just a toddler anymore but yeah um I don't know why yeah but he admitted that
01:18:07
he did that yeah and I did say to M his mom I looked her in the eyes I said I'm
01:18:11
not saying it's your son but you know because they get so wired up and then they're like who why is it Clos it's
01:18:16
like I'm not the parents sorry not that I want you know but he's like isn't that
01:18:21
your job to educate the kids like the poop in the pool and I just looked at her like little not Johnny but you
01:18:27
know I didn't say Johnny I was like isn't it your job to to you it's so
01:18:33
funny a serial pooper did he get a lifetime ban no and it's actually not the you know she did take him out which
01:18:40
is the wrong thing to do like he should have just given him some consequences that he can't come or that he can't play
01:18:47
after the lesson you know rather than Tak him out of the lesson it's like no
01:18:51
he just just give him to the lesson so he learns his purpose like the swimming he obviously needs to learn how to swim
01:18:57
but then right now he got the consequence because he've been pooping every Thursday into the pool you can't
01:19:03
play after this we're going to go straight you know that's how I would have feel rather than you know of course
01:19:09
she was embarrassed but it was nice that she actually emailed us and I'm so sorry
01:19:12
you know like it was yeah it so funny wow hey this one other thing that you've
01:19:18
been involved with recently and um I I completely missed this until I started preparing for this chat but there's um a
01:19:24
TV show a reality TV show on TV3 called track with Vinnie Jones and you were on this yeah it's like a I don't know how
01:19:32
You' describe it maybe it's like um Survivor versus like like Bear Grills
01:19:37
Man versus wild or something how would you describe tracked yeah I've never watched anything of Bear Grills I
01:19:43
obiously know about him or the name you know um uh tracked so I guess it's um a
01:19:49
team of group of people like there were eight teams in a pair to them like s two
01:19:54
in a pair they get released in the beautiful bu you know Countryside of New Zealand and you have a map and on the
01:20:01
map there's a evacuation um and sorry an extraction point you need to get to
01:20:06
usually the episode like the shoot was for two three days um so you had to make your way from where they dropped you off
01:20:16
to the that extraction point in those two three days but what they also is of course it's where the name comes from
01:20:21
tracked they released the set of trackers behind you um yes yes I'm really highte you
01:20:31
know like well experienced um special force um yeah pretty good guys to you know to to find you track you track you
01:20:40
down yeah so you don't have like a 1 hour Head Start yeah I don't know I think it was
01:20:45
roughly an hour but usually they release you and then you could see the helicopter coming in and I guess the
01:20:51
fear kick and it was like ah let's run but I guess the whole thing was like you
01:20:55
can't just run the aim was not to run from your um set of point to the extraction point because also the
01:21:02
extraction point would only be open let's say you get released on a Monday and it would open on a Wednesday
01:21:08
afternoon at 3:00 till 3:30 so you had to be you know you had to be I guess it become it didn't become a race it was
01:21:15
like you had to be running away from the tracker and leave no marks kind of you know hardly any marks and how do you
01:21:22
move around this terrain which was um like a little um hamst you know like you only had you had boundaries so you were
01:21:30
only allowed to play in this area I guess the main thing was to hover around and try not to get tracked till you make
01:21:37
it to that evacuation point but what they also did I guess to spy things up and make it a bit more interesting they
01:21:42
gave us task like we had to collect some try marks they very silver big try marks
01:21:49
and they had sort of an not an advantage but they kind of played an advantage when you made it into The Following
01:21:55
episode when you get didn't get tracked anyhow um then they also had these control boxes they are red and green
01:22:02
which they are like the size of you know a little um what um these what is these
01:22:08
um lunch boxes you know for the kids they take to kindergarten yeah yeah yeah um and ever
01:22:15
have you ever done a Rogan or an orienteering where you see those big orange Flags yeah yeah yeah yeah so they
01:22:20
are big bright you know and imagine find this little tiny lunch boox in the Tass
01:22:24
so you know your n had to be so spot you know like quite good but I I was so lucky to have my good friend and
01:22:32
teammate um Emily Wilson with me in that show um oh yeah I don't know we were
01:22:36
both lucky to have each other but anyway so in these control boxes they had a snitch card in it and that became really
01:22:42
good fun because you when you collect the contol when you found a control box and it had a snitch card in it that
01:22:49
became um an advantage and you could use them them either to give the location of
01:22:54
The Trackers away so you knew where they you know depends on based on your movement you were doing or you could
01:23:00
snitch uh put another team on a handbrake to stand down or give their location away so it was really cool just
01:23:07
another unique um add on to the game if that makes sense you know it wasn't just hide
01:23:13
and seek it was like yeah it was a game between as all you know yeah yeah and and it was hosted by uh Vinnie Vinnie
01:23:20
Jones did you have much to do with him or was he just like dro off to send you guys on your way and um we yeah we
01:23:29
didn't have too much Su with him I guess he was the main the main actor you know
01:23:34
the main host here the main host and we usually he was there right at the start I don't think he was at the finish I
01:23:42
think he's only at the Finish when the boys win oh I shouldn't say as as I said I I watch a few bit of
01:23:49
reality TV and I think I know what's going on but I I hadn't heard of the
01:23:52
show when was it on TV was it early 2023 June July you can still watch it you go on
01:23:57
ends um yeah this is how I watched it on TV3 on Dem so did you did you have many
01:24:02
when it was broadcast did you have many people come up to you on the street and say oh I recognize you from not so much
01:24:09
in Monica more in Christ Church was F funny I was running and they're like I
01:24:14
guess they recognize sort of the hairo um yeah uh yeah not I don't know not too
01:24:21
overwhelming I think Emily quite a few yeah but but um we didn't come so we came in as to threat me and Emily so it
01:24:30
was actually quite funny because when we applied for the show um we just applied
01:24:35
we were like reality TV show how funny would that be I was like oh why not let's just do that so we put the the
01:24:43
application in which we did on a Monday night you know just like yeah you know you have to film yourself and talk to
01:24:49
the camera which is not our greatest thing but anyway we did and we're like oh let's just you know like what could
01:24:54
possibly you know go wrong or what could happen let we get in we had no hopes really it's like just do it and then
01:25:02
within less than 12 hours on a mon on Tuesday morning at 8 we got an email from the lady that was selecting the
01:25:08
teams like right can you guys be on a call in or with with some other you know with the producer blah blah um so yeah
01:25:15
that was it and then the ball just keep rolling and then they're like oh so we
01:25:19
were kind of we had all this tests with the psychology and other things um and health and blah blah and it seems to be
01:25:27
that we're in and they're like oh we do the finalizing in January and then we
01:25:31
didn't hear from them and then you know we were busy doing the coast and then
01:25:35
after the coast we're like okay we're making new plans for this year like we
01:25:38
emailed them back and they're like oh yeah sorry we didn't we dropped you guys
01:25:42
because we changed the agenda and we're like okay nice good that you guys tell
01:25:46
us us something you know anyway and then I said to Emily you know what I bet you
01:25:51
they're going to call us back last minute because we are in the country we can they knew how flexible we are with
01:25:58
work so we can literally drop the pin and be there you know 24 hours if we have to and we can have as much time of
01:26:05
it you know how it is actually quite hard because you can't who can leave work and say oh I might be back in six
01:26:12
weeks or if I get caught I'll be back next week you know like it was really hard to you need a very understanding
01:26:17
employer that's for sure yeah so anyway I was like not filing but I was like H
01:26:22
kind of laughing he like I get I bet you they're going to call us back because of
01:26:25
Co and then also because it's an international thing so they had four International Teams and four kiwi teams
01:26:33
um and I said look those teams from overseas they will be flabber like not flabber they will be like mind blown and
01:26:42
they will actually have a hard time to um to do this properly like and they would have to do so much ad on work
01:26:48
whatever which US which is out there We R in the element like they don't have to
01:26:52
worry about us like be like an easy catch for them and anyway that's what happened in may we got this lovely email
01:26:59
hello do you guys still want to be on the show and you did you did really well um
01:27:06
you finished in second place you seem gutted by the way when you got caught um so you didn't win the $100,000 prize
01:27:13
what what did you and Emily want the $100,000 prize for you wanted to set up a business or you know any money is good
01:27:19
yeah yeah absolutely I know you can talk it high up or you can talk it down as like oh it's only
01:27:26
100 grand 50 each then you pay tax oh it's actually not that you know but then
01:27:30
it's like for me it would be you know even for Emily it's like wow you could
01:27:33
do so much yeah we started the business which is called level up um where we do clinics for all sorts of not just women
01:27:43
like any human being to upskill their not upskill but sort of um you know like um teaching more life I call it I guess
01:27:51
life skills take take them out into nature learning how to nve and be more self-sufficient and trusting themsel and
01:27:58
you know like being brave doing certain things they were probably scared to do before or getting ready for a race or an
01:28:03
adventure race or like the coast or and me you know mentoring them through them and yeah passing on the skills we
01:28:10
learned because we had so much support and input from other amazing humans and we just want to kind of give back pass
01:28:17
on the knowledge have have you have you launched this have you started this oh yeah that's launched a few years ago all
01:28:22
right but we are bit um I guess still so driven with our own little um goals and
01:28:28
you know so busy because we both both have such a busy lifestyle um that I just what I do now for currently I just
01:28:37
I um just started coaching so I don't you know Emily can do her thing and when
01:28:42
we have time fit together then we can do more clinics and then it's all right at
01:28:46
the time and for now what I offer myself I I I started coaching um and mentoring so yeah that's
01:28:56
and I can just do this myself so I don't have to you know rely on any yeah I
01:28:59
think that would be a great business for you guys to sink your teeth into when your competitive years are over because
01:29:04
you're both fantastic Role Models so we we've heard about your journey and Emily
01:29:08
she's type one diabetic yes yes she's got a a lot to give oh she's such an amazing human
01:29:16
and just inspiration I think there like for diabetes like I don't even know why
01:29:21
diabetes New Zealand diabetes would I use it as a you know in spons or help her more with anything because she's
01:29:28
such a great role model for anybody you know like kids especially with diabetes or moms and dads and just even people
01:29:36
themselves with diabetes because she's really she's living it there's no excuse
01:29:40
for Emily she's she's like not that she's like oh my my you know taking
01:29:47
like not running away you know not not thinking like I'm going to die anytime
01:29:51
soon but but she's like she's really like getting it all in as much as she
01:29:55
can and I think it's fantastic to there's no excuse you know like she's
01:29:58
not just because I have diabetes and I'm labeled it's like no I can't do this you
01:30:03
know like she not letting it stand in the way yeah and it's probably I don't
01:30:07
know similar to people who have a tough time or when they go through M it's like
01:30:10
f oh oops sorry but you know it's like man some people they have a certain condition or I was listening to podcast
01:30:17
last night about um what's the name Sophie is it Pascal I so the swimmer yeah yeah and then when you interview
01:30:26
CH incredible like you know like they live with they live with this every day you know and just how they overcome
01:30:33
these things like that's where I sometimes like w man I know it's all I shouldn't put these things together but
01:30:40
it does sometimes I know when you in deepest hole sometimes I think they don't matter and I get that because then
01:30:46
I don't I feel like oh yeah whatever it doesn't touch me but now I'm like man
01:30:51
it's incredible so they do they they inspire me you know like yeah they're
01:30:55
really inspiring like well and and you're you're going to inspire people as
01:30:58
well like with this chat yeah one thing one thing I've got from this podcast
01:31:01
another thing is that um everyone goes through some sort of adversity everyone's dealing with some sort of
01:31:06
[ __ ] in their life um and it's just amazing what the human is capable of doing um and getting past so we've got
01:31:14
um Coast to Coast 2024 coming up um [ __ ] there's so much pressure on you for that
01:31:19
um I suppose expectation of other people but also internal pressure um and then what what after
01:31:27
that going to hang the hang the hang the canoe up no what are you well ideally it
01:31:34
was the plane last year to to call this my last one and I I think I mentioned before because I feel like I ticked all
01:31:40
the bookes you know like and that was really rewarding it's like it's nice
01:31:43
when you can kind can finish on a high so and I guess it's where I put another
01:31:48
bit of pressure on myself which I don't know how it's going to go I I I hope to
01:31:52
of course I want to win and I I know there's is an amazing Deep Field out an
01:31:57
amazing women out there they could all probably five win the co you know um very capable winning the coast this year
01:32:05
it would be nice for me to do to send it off but um yeah this year when I thought
01:32:12
that's it um I got pregnant but it didn't have you know I missed I lost it
01:32:18
and then I thought ah damn and then I thought oh let's try this again but then
01:32:24
because you so um how do you say um oh it's such a mind [ __ ] it's awful
01:32:31
you know I can understand when people say oh first I thought oh why is it so hard was like I understand now why it's
01:32:36
so hard when they lose a you know like um have miscarriage and it's like I guess I just drown up my Sor jumping
01:32:43
back into what I know and what I'm good at so I just jump back straight into
01:32:46
racing and then I was oh China came back up and I just pushed it all aside and I
01:32:50
was like ah God another year so I know I'm old too but who knows we're just
01:32:58
going to see what happened but ideally if that not it's that not happen if that's not happening and if it's not
01:33:03
Health you know like if it's not a healthy normal process whatever um that's fine I'm good terms of that but I
01:33:10
what I really like to do and that's what I thought this year too even on the last
01:33:14
final Bike R like I can't wait to be and support someone on this race or even do
01:33:20
it in a tandem you know and go together where you have a lot more fun you can chitchat or maybe not but you know you
01:33:27
share and you just help some you know you Mentor someone through that would be cool to do a school you know with
01:33:33
someone and Mentor them through it and just give back you know and um invest a bit more like yeah that would be cool
01:33:39
and regardless what happened with a human or not um maybe you can cut this out but you know there's a lot more
01:33:46
goals out there like yeah I just want to do more other things and just have time
01:33:51
to be to the other things again going to the hills because right now all I do all
01:33:55
I do is I I still work I just I work at the campground in Mona which just opened
01:34:00
at the weekend um so that's going to be quite um a balancing act which I haven't done
01:34:08
last year but I'm sure we can all work it out with my employer to get it you
01:34:12
know to get the balance right of yeah they're pretty pretty cool which I did
01:34:17
think and S that oh my God what did I sign up for oh my God but I had a lot of Play Time
01:34:24
beforehand so it's like it's okay and I'm sure we just talking about it and
01:34:28
they are super supportive they they want to see me doing well too you yeah absolutely yeah yeah hey well good luck
01:34:33
with what the future brings um yeah there's the coast to coast coming up which um oh I'm I'm going to be eagerly
01:34:40
watching this and um hopefully you can pull off the fifth Coast to Coast win um but whatever happens in the future yeah
01:34:48
good luck with the family stuff as well I hope that's um successful as well but
01:34:52
whatever you do I'm sure you're gonna do Thrive and do well at because you're an
01:34:55
amazing person thank you yeah yeah yeah and you you'll also be the person that
01:34:59
um that caught the the w pole Thursday pooper so uh that's another thing for
01:35:04
your LinkedIn page back in the days at the old pool all right hey um s m thank you so
01:35:11
much for coming on the podcast thanks so much for having me it was a pleasure